More Garden Work

I did a lot more garden work over the weekend.

I must say, work goes faster when you have a teenage son! He can carry the 40 lb bags of peat moss I was using, and can help me dig up my beds to mix it all in too. :-)

This weekend what we did was this: first we cleaned out each bed of any weeds and other debris. Lots of things blow in over the winter and lots of things grow early in the spring, though not so much with the black plastic on each bed (mostly around the edges and where there are perennials where I don't put black plastic down). Then we took pitch forks and turned under the dirt in each bed that didn't have something growing in it, and then we added compost and some peat moss that I bought. I haven't done the peat moss in a while but my soil was starting to look really sandy and I can't seem to make compost fast enough for my size garden. We put a few bags of peat moss in each bed, and mixed that in really well, and then carefully worked it in around periennial plants like herbs and the strawberries. I also added some around my raspberries. I totally need to clean out the raspberries, as those are looking a little rough these days! it's getting really overgrown again.

I was really pleased with the end result of all the work we did. We got nearly the whole garden done in just a weekend. Woo hoo.

Spring Garden Preparations

Hi Ladies! Everyone enjoying spring?

I am really excited about getting my garden ready. This year, my soil needs some extra attention. It seemed very sandy last fall as we were cleaning it out, and so I bought several bags of peat moss to mix in, along with the compost we have from our composter. Our composter only makes enough for a half of one of our long beds at a time, and so we need to try to figure out how to get more compost done at a time. The spinning composter definately is easier to use and gets the job done faster...it just isn't very big. So...I am back to making compost in a box at the same time as using the spinning composter, and then at least yearly I should have a nice big amount of compost for my organic garden.

We got some compost from an unlikely place this spring. About 8 years ago, when we first moved in, we had a huge tree cut down. Unfortunately, we never did finish cutting up the wood for this tree because of various issues...such as not having anywhere to really burn it, and our chain saw breaking...and along the way we have sold parts of this huge tree to folks and given some of the wood away too. Still, there was a few logs laying around (one was 3 feet in diameter to give you an idea). I determined, last summer, that I was going to get rid of that wood once and for all this spring.

When it came time to move the logs on a nice day (before bugs and weeds made the area, once again, inaccesible), my son and I started to roll one of the big logs only to have it totally fall apart when we pushed on it. This was a pleasant surprise! Inside and under the long was the more gorgeous compost/humus you could find anywhere, and we quickly shoveled it into several of the garden beds. Then we took the decompsoing wood and crumbled it in our hands over the raspberry beds (yippee, we don't need to buy woodchips), and the same happened for each of those logs out there. We had enough compost for half of the garden. We threw some of the decomposing wood into the composter with kitchen scraps and weeds, and it is in the process of decomposing now too.

This weekend, after a babyshower I am attending, I am going to turn under my garden beds, clean out the strawberry beds, and mix in as much of this peat moss, compost, and manure as we possibly can.

Right now, I have an amazing assortment of bulb flowers blooming--daffodils, tulips, a magnolia, and I see lots of blossoms on the cherry trees and forcynthias. Everything is greening up as summer begins. Woo Hoo. I just hope that we have mildly warm weather this summer not scortching hot, as we did last summer.

My Pet Project

I've been working some more on this very amazing and fun website design curriculum. It's taking a long time--longer than I planned--because it is not as easy as it looks to make a video. I thought it would be faster as I wouldn't have to type...boy was that wrong. Then there is me with a cold...I either have to wait til allergy season is over to resume shooting or edit out all of the sniffling I do every 27 seconds (LOL). It's very attractive, believe me. There's a must buy DVD--watching Kimberly "Soccer Mom" Eddy sniffling on video while talking about writing HTML Code in Notepad and fighting to not forget what she was saying after taking her allergy meds. I need prayer. I think if my husband wasn't being such an encouragement and constantly prodding me to finish this, I may never get it done!

Martin, my dh, did his usual, "Yeah, honey, sounds good, but I guess I need to see it" statements when I first told him of this idea. I was excited about it, but he wasn't seeing it. My husband saw the first few lessons as I Wanted his opinion and he was so blown away by it, he is now constantly calling me from work asking me what else I've done on it...and he has half of the people at work anxious to buy it. I guess that is a good thing, huh?

Given the fact that I did take some filmmaking in college, as it was required for art majors, you'd think I'd have known how much work this would be. I didn't realize how intense post production would be.

I was originally going to just have it be downloadable, but then I realized it would be nicer on DVDs in nice cases, and easier for others to sell too in this format, and it would be a pain for anyone with dialup to download. Ok, maybe more like IMPOSSIBLE and I didn't want to do that to anyone. So, I have actually found a place that will get me a great price for duplicating DVDs and creating a nice case for me. This is very exciting.

Being a little bit of an ADHD scatter brain with oodles of ideas flowing in my brain at all times, I proudly showed my dh the DVD case insert that I designed in full color yesterday. His brain can't comprehend how it is that I can spend so much time designing an insert when the curriculum itself is barely half done. Maybe I just needed a diversion--sometimes designing promo stuff for a work in progress gets me more motivated to finish. Woo hoo.

Birth of a Soccer Mom

I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden, I am a soccer mom. LOL Literally.

We went to soccer yesterday in the minivan, and someone said, WHOA, Kim, now you are a SOCCER MOM, and I about screamed. Of all the sports on the planet I probably like soccer second best (Tennis would be first), but I never wanted to be a soccer mom--you know, one of those people who is always hustling and bustling to all of the different sporting events with each child, who can't remember the last time she ate together with her family all present? Thankfully for us, we all have soccer on the same day, in the same place, one day per week.

Today, I had to run my oldest up to church for some volleyball practice and teen choir earlier than the rest of us had service. As I was coming home, rushing about, I thought, when did this happen? A friend of mine laughed at me over this whole thing as she thinks we are the most "un-busy" people she knows...after all, we are not out running around every night of the week to different places with each child. No, thankfully, we're not, and by the Grace of God we never will be!

Even good things can be bad things if they take us away from things that are truely important. Maybe junior sports are the most important things to some people...I don't know. But for me, it's a priority to sit down and eat a meal most nights of the week with us as a family, and to actually talk to each other. It's a priority to not be rushed or so busy that we don't have time to meet the needs of others around us. But, it's one of those things that is a constant battle, isn't it?

Copyright Awareness Month

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
Email: homeschoolcopyrightethics@gmail.com>homeschoolcopyrightethics@gmail.com Web site: http://www.homeschoolcopyright.com/Copyright Awareness Education for Homeschoolers

June is designated as Homeschool Copyright Ethics Awareness MonthApril 15, 2007 -- With so much to learn as a homeschooler, who knew that some homeschoolers fail the copyright test? As with many educators in the country, the Educational Fair Use Policy can be confusing, making it easy for educators, even home educators, to think it's okay to copy something if it's for the education of children. But exactly what are we teaching those children when we break the law for free material?

With a short video on the site, along with the "Copyright Quiz," CSP, a group of authors and publishers, have developed an informative copyright awareness site to educate the educators. Believing in copyright literacy, this video is free for anyone to use on their web site or to show at a convention, support group meeting, or homeschool co-op. The educational video will be available June 1 on YouTube.

Anyone can receive copyright enlightenment with articles on the copyright ethics awareness web site at homeschoolcopyright.com. There are articles written by publishers, lawyers, and homeschool parents detailing what homeschooling families should know about copyright law. You'll also read about educational fair use, plagiarism, and personal integrity. While you're there, take the "Copyright Quiz" and grab the "Help Fight Copyright Ignorance" web site button.